This study investigated the present status of specialized dental treatment that was sought on the Internet by people in Japan and the United States. Searches on Yahoo! Japan and Yahoo! America were performed using “dental clinic” and specific specialties, for example, sports dentistry, orthodontics, periodontics, dental implant, as keywords. The magnitude of search results progressed in the order of sports dentistry, orthodontics, dental implant, and others in Japan. In the United States, the order of search results was oral surgery, sports dentistry, dental implant, and others. Regarding combinations of specialties, the most frequent found combination was dental implant and cosmetic dentistry in Japan. In the United States, it was a combination of cosmetic dentistry and sports dentistry. These findings showed that people were frequently interested in sports dentistry, cosmetic dentistry and dental implants in both countries. It is necessary to display these specialties on the dental clinic homepage in order to attract the interest of potentials in both countries.

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The goal of this research project is to investigate the relation of central nervous system and body balance function by testing the postural maintenance performance of a knock-out mouse. In the development of the prototype mouse stabilometer system, postural maintenance performance was evaluated and analyzed by measuring the variance of the stress on the pillar with strain gauges. However, with the stage swinging during measurement, the evaluated signal is affected by the inertia of the stage, and requires repeated trials to gain determinate data. Furthermore, without gaining the data on actual body mass movement, the relation of brain function and posture control remains non-committal. Therefore, the technical target is set to compute the center of gravity by applying a mechanical system model of the mouse and device to evaluate the postural maintenance performance. As to improve the prototype device to measure the amplified strain gauge signal with the A-D converter, the design of the pillar was adjusted to maximize the variance within the measurement range of the converter. The influence is simulated and the Center-of-Mass & Strain-gauge distance and Stage-surface & & Strain-gauge distance were modified.

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臨床で関節位置覚を評価した際に1回目と2回目の測定値が大きく異なることを経験する。これは関節位置覚の真値以外の誤差が混入していることにより生じていると解釈され，測定値としての信頼性は低いと考える。そこで本稿では，関節位置覚測定で高い信頼性を保証するために必要な測定回数について検討することを目的とした。健常高齢者32名64膝を対象に，角度変位と到達時間からおおよそ10°/secと70°/secを目標とする2つの角速度で角度設定を行い，それぞれ10°，40°，70°の角度でBarrett法を用いた関節位置覚測定を複数回実施した。最初に複数回の測定で得られた測定値から，各条件ごとの信頼性係数を求めた。次に目標とする信頼性係数を0.81と設定して，求められた信頼性係数をSpeaman-Brownの公式に代入した。これで得られた値を信頼性を得るために必要な測定回数とし，その回数をもとに再度測定して確認を行った。その結果，高い信頼性を保証するには3回測定の平均値を用いることが必要であることが分かった。このことから，1回の測定値から関節位置覚の異常の有無を判断するのは危険であると考えられた。今後は，この測定回数が障害を有する者でも適応するか検討する必要があると考えられた。

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加齢に伴う関節位置覚の低下は転倒を助長する危険性がある。関節位置覚の測定は一般的に行われる評価の一つであるが，その測定方法に関しては曖昧な点が多い。本研究では関節位置覚測定における基礎研究として，若年者を対象に関節角度を設定する際の角速度の相違が関節位置覚誤差におよぼす影響について検討した。若年健常44肢を対象にBarrett法を用いて膝関節位置覚を測定した。測定開始肢位は膝関節屈曲90°とした。設定角度は10°ならびに70°とし，それぞれ平均膝関節伸展角速度10°/secと70°/secで角度設定を行った。その結果，設定角度10°では角速度10°/secに比べて70°/secで有意に誤認しやすいことが分かった（P<0.01）。このことから，膝関節位置覚は一部の設定角度において関節角度を設定する際の角速度に影響を受けると考えられた。これらは，メカノレセプターの関与による影響と考えられたが，本研究から明言することはできなかった。しかし，臨床ではこれらの点について留意して関節位置覚の測定を行わなければ，経時的指標にはなりえないと考えられた。

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We discuss here the effect of water-insoluble pharmaceutical aids on the nature of drug release from composite polymeric prodrugs synthesized by mechanochemical solid-state polymerization. Magnesium stearate (Mgst) and hydrogen castor oil (HCO) were used as water-insoluble pharmaceutical aids. Composite polymeric prodrugs were synthesized by the mechanochemical solid-state polymerization of a vinyl monomer of 5-fluorouracil (I) in the presence of Mgst or HCO. The molecular weight of the resulting polymeric prodrugs increased with increasing the content of Mgst or HCO. Prodrug hydrolysis was carried out in a heterogeneous system in phosphate buffer at pH 6.8 and 37 °C. The rate of drug release from the composite polymeric prodrug containing Mgst (Poly-Mgst) was faster than that from polymeric prodrug containing no pharmaceutical aids (Poly-Non), while hydrolysis of the composite polymeric prodrug containing HCO (Poly-HCO) was slower than Poly-Non. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) photos showed the surface of Poly-HCO was smoother than that of Poly-Non and Poly-Mgst. It was suggested that the slower drug release from Poly-HCO may be responsible for the smaller specific surface area than that of Poly-Non. It was also shown that the rate of drug release from the composite polymeric prodrugs decreases with increasing the content of Mgst or HCO. Hence, novel composite polymeric prodrugs with a variety of drug release rates can be prepared by mechanochemical solid-state polymerization in a totally dry process.

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The aim of this study was to use fast Fourier transform analysis to clarify the characteristics of human atrial fibrillation (AF) waves with respect to the duration of AF and the effect of class I antiarrhythmic drugs. Twenty-two patients (10 paroxysmal AF, 12 persistent AF) without organic heart disease were studied by conventional electrophysiological methods. Electrograms were recorded from the right atrial free wall during AF and spectral analysis was performed for 35 s (16 consecutive 4096-ms epochs with 50% overlap) and the fibrillation cycle length (FCL) was calculated from the peak frequency. Mean FCL and SD were determined from 16-epoch data, and the temporal variability of FCL was defined as the SD of FCL. Paroxysmal AF had a longer mean FCL than persistent AF (178 ±26 ms vs 139±16 ms, p<0.001) and AF duration had a significant inverse correlation with mean FCL (r=-0.79, p<0.001). The temporal variability of FCL was significantly greater in paroxysmal AF than in persistent AF (p<0.05) and there was a significant positive correlation between the mean FCL and the temporal variability of FCL (r=0.66, p<0.001). In 8 of 18 patients given a class I antiarrhythmic drug (cibenzoline or procainamide), AF was terminated and in those patients the mean FCLs before administration of class I drugs were significantly greater than in patients without AF termination. With respect to mean FCL before drug administration, conversion occurred in 100% of patients with FCL ≥168 ms and in 17% of those with FCL <168 ms. A longer duration of AF shortens the mean FCL, which is consistent with atrial electrical remodeling. Class I drugs prolong the mean FCL above a critical level and will terminate AF, which can be estimated from the mean FCL before drug administration. (Jpn Circ J 2001; 65: 1047 - 1051)

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地球環境を保全し, 持続的経済発展をするための循環型社会の構築に向けた企業の役割として, 環境保全に適合した製品の開発や, 使用済み製品の回収・リサイクルを考えた活動がますます重要になってきている。NECは1991年11月に「NECの環境憲章」を制定し, 環境との調和を経営の最高課題のひとつと位置づけるとともに, 環境保全に適合した製品 (環境配慮型製品) の提供をめざしている。
環境配慮型製品の開発をさらに加速するとともに, お客様へ製品に関する環境情報を積極的に開示することを目的に, NEC版環境ラベル「エコシンボル」制度を導入した。本稿では, この「エコシンボル」制度の概要と, エコシンボル認定第1号製品となったパソコンの環境配慮型製品開発の取り組み事例を紹介する。

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From the standpoint of the mechanism of mechanochemical polymerization, two kinds of copolymeric prodrug, whose monomer sequence distribution (MSD) is different from each other, can be prepared by this polymerization under appropriate operational conditions : one is a random copolymer abundant in the longer block consisting of the same repeating units (multi-block copolymer), and the other is a block copolymer. To confirm the difference of MSD, the ¹³C-NMR spectra of poly(acrylamide-co-sodium acrylate) prepared by mechanochemical polymerization were measured and compared with the spectrum of that synthesized by a conventional radical-initiated solution polymerization, which produces the random copolymer normally. The results show that MSD in copolymers depends on the polymerization method (operational condition). We prepared three kinds of copolymeric prodrug consisting of acrylamide and vinyl monomer of 5-fluorouracil, whose MSD is different from one another. These copolymeric prodrugs had almost the same number average molecular weight, particle diameter and composition, and differed only in MSD. We compared the rate of drug release of these copolymeric prodrugs. The rate of drug release was the highest with the random copolymer, followed by the mechanochemically produced multi-block copolymer and the block copolymer. This result suggests that the rate of drug release depends on MSD of copolymeric prodrugs. These results are useful as they give a fundamental insight into the synthesis of copolymeric prodrugs having the desired rate of drug release.

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The arteriosclerosis is on the increase with an aging or change of our living environment. For that reason, diagnosis of the common carotid artery using echocardiogram is doing to take precautions carebropathy. The arteriosclerosis of the common carotid artery is diagnosed using Intima-Media Thickness (IMT) which is obtained from echocardiogram. In order to measure IMT from echocardiogram, it is required to detect a border which is a boundary between vessel tissue layers. The method of border detection requires reproducibility, high accuracy and high-speed.
In this paper, we propose the high-accuracy and high-speed detection method by Gauss-Markov estimation. About high-accuracy, it realized by attaching importance to high reliable candidate point of border. And, about high-speed, it realized by calculating matrix only one time.

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Understanding the shape of an organ is important because it is representative of the condition of an organ in case of diseases affecting it. The intensity and the phase distribution in MRI image are influenced by the system and the object. The influences in the distribution could be changed by the type of the organ. In this paper, we discuss a method that was developed to evaluate the shape of organs in MR images based on the anisotropy in the intensity or phase distribution. First, the entire intensity range or the phase is divided into intervals. The bounding rectangle for the particle, comprising neighboring points in each divided range, is used to recognize the object based on the elongation direction of the rectangle. This method can be applied to images obtained by phase-contrast, gradient-echo, and spin-echo methods. All the results demonstrate the efficiency of this method in recognizing the outline of the object. Moreover, the distribution anisotropy in the object differed from that in its outside. The result would make the method better.

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Congenital dislocation of the hip joint(LCC : luxatio coxae congenita)is the most frequent congenital dislocation. We attempted to carry out computer-aided diagnosis(CAD)of LCC by tracing the x-ray image on the display and measuring the hip joint by computer program. We developed software for CAD with Visual C++6.0, and adopted the algorithms of Hilgenreiner's method and Iino's method in our determination of the measurement. We studied 146 examples of hip joints in infants under 1 year of age to obtain the data. It was found that diagnosis by CAD software was equal to physicians' diagnosis in 3-to 4-month-old infants. The ease of diagnosis by this program was confirmed, and it was concluded that computer-aided diagnostic software may contribute to the diagnosis of LCC.

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The arteriosclerosis is on the increase with an aging or change of our living environment. For that reason, diagnosis of the common carotid artery using echocardiogram is doing to take precautions carebropathy. Up to the present, several methods to measure stiffness parameter of the carotid artery have been proposed. However, they have analyzed at the only one point of common carotid artery.
In this paper, we propose the method of analysis extended over a wide area of common carotid artery. In order to measure stiffness parameter of common carotid artery from echocardiogram, it is required to detect two border curves which are boundaries between vessel wall and blood. The method is composed of two steps. The first step is the detection of border curves, and the second step is the calculation of stiffness parameter using diameter of common carotid artery. Experimental results show the validity of the proposed method.

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光ファイバケーブルを一般家庭にまで敷設する計画が進行している.この計画においては, 通常, 電力会社や通信事業者の電柱を利用して幹線をツリー状に敷設する.そして, 幹線上の特定の電柱にクロージャと呼ばれる分岐接続用の機器を設置し, そこから各家庭に支線を敷設する.したがって, 光ファイバケーブルを一般家庭にまで敷設する場合には, クロージャの設置費用, 各家庭への支線敷設費用, 電柱間の幹線敷設費用の総和が最小となるように, 設置するクロージャのタイプの選定, クロージャを設置する電柱の選択, および幹線と支線の敷設方法を同時に計画する問題が発生する.当研究では, この問題のラグランジアン・ヒューリスティック法に基づく近似最適解法を提案する.最初に, この問題を0-1整数計画問題に定式化する.次いで, ナップサック問題と最小木問題を解いてこの問題の下界値を求める方法を示したあと, それを組み込んだこの問題の近似最適解法を提案する.そして最後に, 提案法の有効性を数値実験を通して検証する.

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テレワークのエネルギー節約効果が注目されている。テレワークに伴う省エネルギー効果は、政府による報告書などこれまでに多くの報告があり、定量的な議論もある。しかしながら、テレワークにより増加すると考えられるテレワーク先(自宅等)でのエネルギー利用は、明らかになっていない。テレワーク先でのエネルギー利用機器のうち、パソコン等個人で使用する機器はテレワーク先でも同様にエネルギーを消費するため、テレワークの省エネ効果は少ない。一方、空調や部屋の照明は、他人との共有が想定される。自宅に人がいて空調等を利用している場合には、テレワークを行っても追加的にエネルギー消費が増えない可能性がある。空調等の他人との共有状況がテレワークの省エネルギー効果を左右する。本年1月に実施したテレワーカーに対する自宅等でのエネルギー利用実態調査の結果では、自宅で仕事をする際、空調は約4割、照明は約6割の人が一人で利用していた。すなわち、テレワークの実施によりオフィスでのエネルギー使用が減少しても、その半分程度のエネルギーがテレワーク先の自宅で増加すると考えられ、省エネ効果はオフィスでの削減分の半分程度と推定される。

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Saito and Shiraishi (2002) have reported that people bind live postures together into a series of movements (the binding). They used a cued reconstruction test in which participants were presented a list of seven asymmetrical front postures sequentially presented, after which the participants were asked to reconstruct the order of the presented postures from cued postures printed on a sheet. We conducted two experiments using the cued reconstruction test to investigate the effect of the lifelike quality of postures and the processing based on an egocentric frame of reference on the activation of the binding. We used symmetrical front and back postures with less lifelike quality depicted with three dimensional computer graphics. We manipulated the number of postures (eight postures in Experiment 1, nine and eleven postures in Experiment 2) in the lists of stimuli and the number of joints (1- and 4-step conditions) functioning in the changes in the neighboring postures to vary the difficulty of task both in Experiment 1 and 2. The still pictures of front and back postures were used in Experiment 1, and the still pictures and the animation of back postures were used in Experiment 2. The results of Experiment 1 indicated that the accuracy in the 1 step condition with back postures was higher than the 4 step condition, but not in the front condition. The results of Experiment 2 showed that the accuracy in the still condition with back postures decreased as the number of postures increased from nine to eleven, but not in the animation condition. These results suggest that the decrease in lifelike quality interrupts the activation of the binding with front postures when only observing them without imitation, whereas the observation of back postures elicits the binding due to the ease in using the processing based on an egocentric frame of reference. Furthermore, the observation of sequentially presented postures is involved in forming a motor representation of neighboring postures, whereas the resulting motor representation is different from such motion representation as that shown in the animation.

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  We used a device with high spatial resolution to measure changes in plantar pressure distribution under the metatarsal head while leaning forwards within a positional range where digital pressure did not rapidly increase. Twenty-six healthy individuals moved forwards while standing at uniform velocity by tracking a target spot displayed on a visual monitor in front of them. The center of pressure in the foot in the anteroposterior direction (CoPy) and the plantar pressure distribution were recorded during the tracking task. Positions of the foot and pressure are represented as either relative distance from the heel to the total length of the foot (%FL) or from the medial surface to the width of the foot (%FW). The force exerted on the metatarsal head increased according to the amount of forward lean, and began to decrease at around 65%FL. The mean position of maximal pressure under the metatarsal head in the quiet standing position (QSP) was located slightly posterior to or between the second or third metatarsal head. This position moved 8.3%FW inwards and 1.3%FL forwards when CoPy was moved from QSP to 60%FL position. The metatarsal head was separated into parts of 1st, 2nd-3rd, and 4th-5th. Among them, the increase in maximal force from QSP was the greatest in parts of 2nd-3rd, whereas the rate of change in pressure in each part was the greatest in parts of 1st. These properties of plantar pressure might provide important positional information for postural control while standing.

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I have contrived an Apparatus producing a great deal of compressed air. (See Fig.l, Fig.2) The mass of Float is much larger than the mass of Weight, so the Float usually floats on the sea and the Weight is alweys in the ai. As the sea surface gets up-and-down, the Wheel recip rocates and the Pumps compress air. The compressed air is pressed into the same Air Receiver from a pair of Piston-pumps. By the way, it is desired that the Float keeps up big vibration in order to produce the com pressed air efficiency. For this purpose, the value of ***** (See 3.1 formulas (1), (8)) be tween 0.2 and 0.25 is satisfactory. Then I design a right Apparatus and simulate the movement of the Float in the case of wave height 1 (m) and wave period 7 (sec). This example is shown in Chapter 4. (See Fig.4, Table 1) On the other hand, the pressure of the compressed air is related to the radius of cylinders in the piston-pumps. In chapter 5.1 discuss how the movement of the Float produces 8000m^3 com pressed air of 2 atm (radius 0.2m) or 8 atm (radius 0.08m). These are shown by Figures, a Graph and Tables. (See Fig.5, 6, 7 & Table 1, 2)

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